3 days later, after trying to keep up the new rhythm, I’m back to sitting on the couch.

Willpower and positive thinking have their limits. And drastic changes rarely stay.

Instead, scale down the frequency or intensity of your goals:

Exercise 3 days/week instead of 7

Meditate for 5 minutes/day

Cook 2 healthy meals/week

Scrub ½ of the shower today, the other ½ tomorrow

Vacuum 1x/month

The point is to chop up your goal into tiny habits and maintain them consistently. Then, scale up little by little.

Or if you’re still struggling, scale down more: Meditate for 1 minute per day. Scrub ¼ of the shower everyday for 4 days.

For every tiny habit, make them stick by planning ahead. Use these pointers:

When will you do it (daily or weekly)?

Where will you do it?

How will you be reminded?

Who will keep you accountable?

What’s at stake if you do it well versus if you don’t do it?

Concrete, baby steps won’t help you achieve your goal right away. But they will help you gain momentum—and give you the confidence necessary to reach your goal.

Don’t wait till you feel good or conditions are right to take action. Otherwise, you might not get anything done, feel guilty and lousy or resort to social media.

Just start with one mini task.

Then, you’ll feel a tiny bit better. And that’ll get the ball rolling…

So, what’s your next baby step?

Connect to your why

Sometimes we get so caught up in details and to-do lists that we forget what’s most important.

When we connect to our bigger why—the uplifting reason we do what we do—it motivates us to joyfully take action. Even if the task is as banal as house chores.

Before vacuuming the house, for example, I ask myself, How will I feel if I vacuumed now? Or later?

I visualize how pleasant it’d be to walk barefoot without lint sticking to my soles. The thought of leaving the house messy again, however, forms a small rock in my belly.

Then, I remind myself how grateful I feel to even have a house to vacuum. How my partner Loïc and I love our home sanctuary, where we reboot ourselves after a long day. It’s our nest for new ideas, self-care and play.

Sometimes, we think we want something, but it’s not what’s best for us. We might not realize our goal comes from others’ expectations.

Check your self-worth

Similarly, setting high standards motivate and inspire us to décrocher la lune (take down the moon, the French equivalent of “reach for the stars”).

But unrealistic standards can make us feel not good enough, damage relationships and keep us from success. It’s like expecting a bird to clap its wings (except for rock pigeons!), then criticizing it when it fails.

To stop setting unrealistic standards, we need to acknowledge this: When we base our value largely on achievements, it activates a vicious cycle…